I have an old projection TV (Sony KDF-E50A10) connected to an i3 Gigabyte Brix running Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS Desktop (was running OS X Mavericks in a previous life). The HDTV is connected to the computer via its HDMI input (this is the easiest because the mini-PC has mini-DP and HDMI ports, and also the HDMI port carries audio, which works beautifully in Ubuntu. I do not with to change the way the computer is connected to the TV). The problem is that I cannot find a good setting so that I don't cut off pixels at the right and bottom edge of the screen. I have already spent a few hours doing research and trying to fix this problem, but I have not found a good solution yet.
The overscan cannot be fixed at the TV. I have tried all the settings and read the manual. So it needs to be fixed with tweaking of xrandr and/or creating new modes. The problem is, how exactly to do this and achieve perfect results. Here is the output of xrandr -q --verbose:
Code:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1332 x 768, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI1 connected primary 1319x778+0+0 (0xaa) normal (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 16mm x 9mm
Identifier: 0x43
Timestamp: 4112051
Subpixel: unknown
Gamma: 1.0:1.0:1.0
Brightness: 1.0
Clones:
CRTC: 0
CRTCs: 0 1 2
Transform: 1.029999 0.000000 -28.000000
0.000000 1.079987 -18.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter: bilinear
EDID:
00ffffffffffff004dd9f80101010101
000e0103800000780a0dc9a057479827
12484c20000001010101010101010101
010101010101011d8018711c1620582c
250010090000009e8c0ad08a20e02d10
103e9600040300000018000000fc0053
4f4e592054560a2020202020000000fd
003b3d0f2e08000a20202020202001df
02031a76478502030406070123090707
8301000065030c001000011d007251d0
1e206e28550010090000001e8c0aa014
51f01600267c43000403000000988c0a
d08a20e02d10103e9600100900000018
8c0aa01451f01600267c430010090000
00980000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000097
aspect ratio: Automatic
supported: Automatic, 4:3, 16:9
Broadcast RGB: Automatic
supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235
audio: auto
supported: force-dvi, off, auto, on
1920x1080i (0x48) 74.2MHz +HSync +VSync Interlace +preferred
h: width 1920 start 2008 end 2052 total 2200 skew 0 clock 33.8KHz
v: height 1080 start 1084 end 1094 total 1125 clock 60.1Hz
1920x1080i (0xa9) 74.2MHz +HSync +VSync Interlace
h: width 1920 start 2008 end 2052 total 2200 skew 0 clock 33.7KHz
v: height 1080 start 1084 end 1094 total 1125 clock 60.0Hz
1280x720 (0xaa) 74.2MHz +HSync +VSync *current
h: width 1280 start 1390 end 1430 total 1650 skew 0 clock 45.0KHz
v: height 720 start 725 end 730 total 750 clock 60.0Hz
1280x720 (0xab) 74.2MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 1280 start 1390 end 1430 total 1650 skew 0 clock 45.0KHz
v: height 720 start 725 end 730 total 750 clock 59.9Hz
1440x480i (0xac) 27.0MHz -HSync -VSync Interlace
h: width 1440 start 1478 end 1602 total 1716 skew 0 clock 15.7KHz
v: height 480 start 488 end 494 total 525 clock 60.1Hz
720x480 (0xad) 27.0MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 720 start 736 end 798 total 858 skew 0 clock 31.5KHz
v: height 480 start 489 end 495 total 525 clock 60.0Hz
720x480 (0xae) 27.0MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 720 start 736 end 798 total 858 skew 0 clock 31.5KHz
v: height 480 start 489 end 495 total 525 clock 59.9Hz
720x480i (0xaf) 13.5MHz -HSync -VSync Interlace
h: width 720 start 739 end 801 total 858 skew 0 clock 15.7KHz
v: height 480 start 488 end 494 total 525 clock 60.1Hz
720x480i (0xb0) 13.5MHz -HSync -VSync Interlace
h: width 720 start 739 end 801 total 858 skew 0 clock 15.7KHz
v: height 480 start 488 end 494 total 525 clock 60.1Hz
640x480 (0xb1) 25.2MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 640 start 656 end 752 total 800 skew 0 clock 31.5KHz
v: height 480 start 490 end 492 total 525 clock 60.0Hz
640x480 (0xb2) 25.2MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 640 start 656 end 752 total 800 skew 0 clock 31.5KHz
v: height 480 start 490 end 492 total 525 clock 59.9Hz
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x44
Timestamp: 4112051
Subpixel: unknown
Clones: HDMI2
CRTCs: 0 1 2
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
Broadcast RGB: Automatic
supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235
audio: auto
supported: force-dvi, off, auto, on
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x45
Timestamp: 4112051
Subpixel: unknown
Clones: DP1
CRTCs: 0 1 2
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
aspect ratio: Automatic
supported: Automatic, 4:3, 16:9
Broadcast RGB: Automatic
supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235
audio: auto
supported: force-dvi, off, auto, on
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Identifier: 0x46
Timestamp: 4112051
Subpixel: no subpixels
Clones:
CRTCs: 3
Transform: 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
filter:
As you can see, the system offers two main modes: 1920x1080i (preferred by default) and 1280x720. I was surprised to see the first mode. I do not like it because everything is way too small. So what I did is to select 1280x720 and start tweaking with xrandr settings. After much trial and error I found that this command would give me a reasonable result:
Code:
xrandr --output HDMI1 --fb 1332x768 --transform 1.03,0,-28,0,1.08,-18,0,0,1
So I saved it into ~/.xprofile to make it permanent.
I now have two issues:
1. The rightmost ~30 pixels and bottommost ~? pixels are cut off
2. At booting, I am greeted with an error message that "the screen is too large to fit in the given space" (I am paraphrasing). Clicking OK with the mouse dismisses the dialog box and boot proceeds. This is very annoying.
One thing I have noticed is that I cannot simply enlarge the frame buffer past 1332 horizontal pixels (for example using --fb 1352x768): The TV stops showing me more of the desktop above 1332. WHY?
It seems to me that this TV needs a resolution in the neighborhood of 1366x768, a mode that is however not offered by default. So I read about using cvt to create a new mode and adding it. I was able to do that, but when I switched to it, I just got a black screen. Maybe I made a rookie mistake at some step, maybe not.
So the question is now, how to proceed?
(The irony is OS X has a simple checkbox "Overscan" in the Display Preferences that fixed the problem with one click. Don't flame me, just saying...)
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